1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet printer of line printer type including a medium feeder operable to feed a recording medium in a medium-feed direction and a recording head operable to eject ink toward the recording medium. In particular, the present invention relates to an ink-jet printer including a waste ink receiver configured to receive the ink ejected through nozzles of the recording head.
2. Discussion of Related Art
There is known an ink-jet printer of line printer type including (a) a medium feeder operable to feed a recording medium in a medium-feed direction and (b) a recording head having (b-1) a nozzle opening surface which extends in a widthwise direction perpendicular to the medium-feed direction and (b-2) a plurality of nozzles which open in the nozzle opening surface and which are arranged in the widthwise direction, the recording head being operable to eject ink toward the recording medium. The ink-jet printer records an image on a recording medium such as a recording sheet by ejecting ink to the recording medium from desired ones of the plurality of nozzles of the recording head while the recording medium is fed in the medium-feed direction by the medium feeder such as a convey roller or a convey belt.
Some nozzles of the recording head, which have not been used for a long time, tend to be clogged by ink. Therefore, for example, as disclosed in Patent Document 1 (JP-A-11-198405), there is provided a recovery area outside a medium-feed area through which the recording medium is fed. At a predetermined timing, the recording head is moved to the recovery area and forcedly ejects ink from the nozzles of the recording head, that is, performs a recovery operation such as a flushing operation, so that the nozzles of the recording head are prevented from being clogged by ink.
However, in a case in which the recovery area is provided outside the medium-feed area, in the ink-jet printer of line printer type, the ink-jet printer is inevitably oversized. In other words, when the recovery operation is to be performed in the line-printer-type ink-jet printer, the recording head is needed to move to the recovery area from the medium-feed area, so that the ink-jet printer needs a wide space including the medium-feed area and the recovery area. In view of this, the Patent Document 1 suggests that a waste ink receiver configured to receive ink ejected through the nozzles of the recording head is provided at a position which is opposed to the recording head and which is located on one of opposite sides of a medium-feed path that is remote from the recording head.
Furthermore, a provision (an arrangement) of a waste ink receiver is suggested in various manners. For example, as disclosed in Patent Document 2 (JP-A-2003-11377), there is provided a waste ink receiver on a back surface of a platen opposite to a front surface of the platen which is opposed to the recording head and which constitutes a medium-feed path. When the recovery operation is performed, the platen is rotated by an angle of 180 degrees so that the waste ink receiver is opposed to the recording head.